This book examines the hundred years of drama preceding
Shakespeare in the light of a critical problem: English drama
at the beginning of the sixteenth century was allegorical,
didactic, and moralistic; but by the end of the century theatre
was censured as emotional and even immoral. How could such
a change occur? Kent Cartwright suggests that some theories
of early Renaissance theatre - particularly the theory that
Elizabethan plays are best seen in the tradition of morality
drama - need to be reconsidered. He proposes instead that
humanist drama of the sixteenth century is theatrically exciting - rather than literary, elitist, and dull as it has often been
seen - and socially significant, and he attempts to integrate
popular and humanist values rather than setting them
against each other. Taking as examples plays by writers from
Medwall and Heywood to Marlowe, Lyly, and Greene, as well
as many by lesser-known dramatists, the book demonstrates
the contribution of humanist drama to the theatricalvital ity
of the sixteenth century.

KENT CARTWRIGHT is Associate Professor of English at the
University of Maryland, College Park. He has published on
Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and American fiction. His
previous books are Shakespearean Tragedy and its Double: The
Rhythms of Audience Response (1991) and Othello: New Perspectives
(1991), which he edited with Virginia Mason Vaughan.

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